scope:

This guideline deals with diamond tools whose cutting parts are manufactured by CVD processes, either as a solid single piece or as a coating. In the classification part of this guideline the tool specifications are differentiated into CVD diamond-coated tools (CVD diamond thin-film coatings) and tools with a CVD diamond cutting insert. Their production and characterisation are also described. Due to their different methods of manufacture, tools with monocrystalline synthetic or natural diamond (MCD or monocrystalline diamond) or with sintered diamond with a binder phase (PCD or polycrystalline diamond) fall outside the categorisation attempted in this guideline.

Diamond as a modification of carbon is treated in detail in guideline VDI 2840. The information provided there regarding the classification and manufacture and also the properties of CVD diamond form the basis for describing CVD diamond tools.

Dressing tools fitted with CVD diamond are dealt with in detail in guideline VDI 3392 and do not therefore fall within the remit of the present guideline. VDI 3392 also describes the manufacture, classification and dressing applications of natural diamond, MCD, PCD and CVD diamond. There are no further normative publications in existence within the field covered by the DIN and VDI publications which are explicitly devoted to CVD diamond or diamond tools used in machining with a defined cutting edge.

In addition to being used as a cutting material, CVD diamond finds application in a number of other fields of application which although listed below are not further described in the present guideline:

• in optics [1; 2]
• in jewellery, decoration and design [3; 4; 5]
• as part of wear protection for components [6; 7; 8]
• in thermal management [2]
• in electronics and sensors [1; 2; 9]
• for electrochemical applications [1; 2]
• in medical technology [1]
• as a reinforcing material [2]
• in microsystems [2]
• in acoustics [2; 10]

According to DIN ISO 513, CVD diamond tools can be classified under "hard coatings of hard metal and ceramic" and "polycrystalline diamond". The different manufacturing processes used for polycrystalline diamond cutting materials are not covered here. The integrated manufacturing process for tools using lowpressure coating methods is described in guidelines VDI 3198 and VDI 3824. Here the definition of coating and substrate as well as the manufacture and testing of the coated tools and components are linked together. Guideline VDI 2841 Part 1 applies - where possible - its requirements to the coating of cutting tools with CVD diamond. The process descriptions of cutting which occur in this guideline are oriented according to DIN 8580.